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The stare he gave her could have frozen her solid. “I’m not in the habit of questioning my sovereign’s decisions.”
“Perhaps you should. Maybe convince him to add some color to Casa de Raeth.”
Rolling his eyes and dismissing her in one fell swoop, Derikles refocused his attention on his sovereign. “I’ll take my leave, sovereign. Good luck with the tag along.”
The Raeth evaporated into thin air only seconds later, leaving Isaiah and Rukia alone. Turning to her, Isaiah looked her up and down with a mischievous glint in his eye. “By all means, keep the t-shirt.”
“Would you rather I go naked?”
Isaiah’s smugness intensified, his gaze heating, opening his mouth a second before she closed the door on his retort.
“Don’t answer that.” She swung her head around to take in the kitchen once more. “Nice digs for someone who doesn’t eat that much.”
From the little she knew about Raeth physiology, they tended to eat only when they expended massive amounts of energy. Elementals, on the other hand, ate similarly to human beings, but could go long spans without consuming food if they communed with their element regularly.
Suddenly, she yearned for the water with such necessity it hurt.
“Shall I show you my territory in the light?”
“That sounds suspiciously like a date.” Rukia tilted her head, pinning the Raeth with a mischievous stare as she dared him to taunt her.
“A moot point considering I don’t date, Rukia.” Isaiah’s bland reply was spoken with little infliction, his attention having already returned to the paperwork sprawled on the counter in front of him. “There is, however, a small stream that runs—“
“Show me.” She paused, adding a saccharine smile. “Please.”
Lazily, Isaiah brought up his eyes to meet hers on the heels of her sharp command. “Your wish is my command, milady.”
Minutes later, he was leading her down a spiraling stone staircase built into the side of a rocky outcrop that rose over the township below. His home had been woven into the rock, the architecture flawlessly assimilating into the natural barrier.
Rukia, however, wasn’t impressed. Whereas the Iowa summer held humidity as thick as fog at times, the dryness of the Utah air seemed to sap her strength. Scoffing, she spoke to the man beside her.
“It’s so dry here. Compared to Iowa, especially, where you can almost swim through the air in August.” She sniggered. “No wonder your soul is so parched, Isaiah.”
“And yours is the picture of health?” Isaiah bit back, not deigning to look at her. “It seems to me that your fear of being alone would indicate a rather gaping wound.”
Rukia stopped walking, her heart beating frenetically in her chest at the gall of him. When Isaiah turned back to her, the masculine features of his face set in cold lines, she allowed it to fuel the raging tides within her.
“Your sleuthing skills are positively astonishing Isaiah,” she replied, incensed. “Yes.Yes.My soul is a gigantic, gaping wound that you’re poking with a stick.”
“I’m being honest. If you’re not honest with yourself about what happened, then how can anyone else be? How can you move past it?”
“Why would I want to move past it?” She inched forward, squaring off with him as her heart tore open. “You saw what they did to him. What Icouldn’tdo. I’m not ready to uncover my feelings and have a therapy session with you about what happened, Raeth. I’m hiding here.”
Eyes of deepest brown held hers, his stare ignited with fiery temper and barely concealed passion. “You’re the one who told me to take off the kid gloves, Rukia.”
Growling, Rukia jabbed her finger into his sternum. “That didn’t mean that I gave you permission to be an asshole.”
“Since when do I need your permission?”
Eyes slitting, Isaiah inclined his head, the very picture of arrogance. She pressed forward, her hand flattening against his sternum, and inched into his personal space in an attempt to get him to cede the ground. The only thing she accomplished was eliminating the distance between them.
She bared her teeth at him, adding pressure to where she still held him captive. But Isaiah’s strength was absolute, unyielding. And now, with his physique pressed into hers and his mouth hovering near her lips, traitorous desire heated her bloodstream like a match doused with gasoline.
Arching into his chest, she dragged her nails down the hard muscle of his bicep, uncaring that she’d leave marks or even draw blood. Every cell of her body stood at attention; her eyes locked with his as antagonism gave way to arousal.
Rukia recognized the instant that Isaiah lost the battle with his own need. When his lips parted in desire mere seconds later, she could resist the pull of him no longer.
Her lips crushed against his, hungry and possessive. Isaiah yielded to her instantly, his arms cinching around her body seconds later. Lost in his embrace, Rukia dissolved into him, the flame of their intimacy igniting as he claimed her without reservation.
